One of the fastest growing areas of communications technology is related to automobile network solutions. The demand and potential for wireless vehicle communication, networking and diagnostic services have recently increased. Although many vehicles on the road today have limited wireless communication functions, such as unlocking a door and setting or disabling a car alarm, new vehicles offer additional wireless communication systems that help personalize comfort settings, run maintenance and diagnostic functions, place telephone calls, access call-center information, update controller systems, determine vehicle location, assist in tracking vehicle after a theft of the vehicle and provide other vehicle-related services. Drivers can call telematics call centers and receive navigational, concierge, emergency, and location services, as well as other specialized help such as locating the geographical position of a stolen vehicle and honking the horn of a vehicle when the owner cannot locate it in a large parking garage. Telematics service providers can offer enhanced telematics services by supplying a subscriber with a digital handset.
With speech recognition available in today's vehicles a driver can control devices within the vehicle without removing their hands from the steering wheel. Drivers receive various forms of information while operating a vehicle such as phone numbers or destination addresses. While a driver is on the road, it is not convenient for them to record the information and then input that information to a vehicle device such as an in-vehicle phone or navigation system. Information of interest to a driver can be a part of a conversation the driver has with another person and not in a format directly usable by a vehicle device.
The driver can receive a business address as part of a conversation with a person at the business. To use that address with the vehicles navigation system, the driver must remember or record the address, enable the navigation system and input the address to the navigation system. This requirement is both an inconvenience for the driver and a limitation that decreases the driver's satisfaction with the capabilities of the navigation system.
It is desirable therefore, to provide a method and system for enabling a device function of a vehicle, that overcomes the challenges and obstacles described above.